Caulk Gun

This morning one of our Afghan contractors showed up to the job site with a caulk gun to seal some flashing.  In the afternoon the QA checked in on them and saw them spinning the steel rod.  He figured that the gun was broken, so he took the gun and squeezed the trigger a couple of times.  The rod moved forward a couple of positions, all is well.  At this time the two painters, helper and superintendent started yelling at him to stop.  They told him that they had been twisting the rod for about an hour and couldn’ t get it to back out so they could put the tube in.  Now he had triggered the rod in even further.  The QA hit the thumb release, pulled the rod out and gave it to them.  He said that the look of joyous surprise was priceless.   The little things in life.

The family finally got their Valentine’s gifts.  I sent Christian a bunch of Batman cartoons and he was inspired to create a new batman costume.

Katy’s Korner:

     I have implemented a new rule; it states that nothing is allowed to live inside unless it knows how to use the toilet.  Since Sera’s cat, Pebbles, hasn’t mastered the trick of that yet, she has been banished to the backyard.  This decision cost me $35 at PetSmart today, buying her an engraved nametag, pink/black zebra print collar and matching leash (Sera wants to take her for “walks”) and some new toys so she knows that we still love her (Sera’s request, of course).   I’m fairly sure that the cat is way too lazy to ever climb the fence and try to go anywhere, but….neighbors, if you do see a gray cat with a pink/black zebra print collar wandering  the neighborhood, PLEASE return her to us.  If anything happens to that cat, my first born may never forgive me….

Carseat Conversations:

“Sera, what are pilgrims?”  Christian asked.  Sera responded, “ I’ll tell you if you’ll get your nasty, stinking feet off me!”

Christian to self:  “I can’t decide which one of my sisters to marry when I grow up.  They’re both so pretty!!”

Lily refused to allow Christian and Cayden into the car to come home from preschool.  She insisted that “Boys are nasty and they stink too much!!”

Outdoor Kitchens and Trebuchets

    Our Afghan contractors typically have a different workforce organization than the other contractors we work with.  If your contractor shows up introduces you to someone as “the driver”, well, he is pretty much just a driver.  Occasionally that person might have other duties, he might also be the cook.  They usually have drivers, a cook, sometimes a mechanic (to work on the cars or other equipment), various engineers (plumber engineer, door engineer, water engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, etc), laborers, carpenters, etc.  Below is a picture of how a cook was preparing lunch for the crew at one of our off base sites.  They had an outside office area roped off, he threw down a rug, gathered his materials and took his shoes off to prepare the food.  He is making a meat gravy that will be put over rice.

Today I took my ½ day off and a few of us made a trebuchet.  We don’t have the weights attached yet, but we manually swung the arm and were able to throw about 8” diameter snow balls and water bottles 30 – 40 yards.  Maybe we’ll mount it to the hum-vee and have a mobile siege weapon J

Katy wanted to tribute to the Home Front News section so I added her email below (I think it’s her way of making me blog more J).

Sera is still working hard to collect school supplies to send to Afghanistan.  It seems that word is really spreading and this school may end up with enough supplies to last several years! 

     Christian is still spending his days changing clothes and “making costumes.”  His cutest recent one was an “Indian” (as seen in the pic).  The spoon sticking out of the belt wrapped around his head is a feather (or so I am told).

    My treat of the day was a play written by Sera and Christian during their post-dinner, pre-bath play time.  For this to make sense, I need to tell you up front that Sera has been studying Greek mythology in school… “The Baby that Flies in the Sky” began with Christian jumping off the couch into Sera’s arms (keep in mind that Sera is only about 10 lbs. heavier than Christian).   He explains (in baby talk) that “Zeus daddy” and has kicked him out of the sky.  Sera then breaks into an impromptu opera song, “Oh my, Oh my, What Are you?”  Christian follows her act with his own spontaneous song of “One day…when I’m big and strong…I’ll be a king!”  The play concludes with Sera sending “her son” off to train…I think they may have a future in theatre!

Snow!!

This area finally got some significant snow, not that I'm excited, but all the local people are.  Except for the mountains, most of the snow has melted, creating a muddy FOB.  What a mess.

Not too much going on here.  Projects are continuing, new projects are in the works and most of the people in the office are getting to redeploy in a month or so. 

Our office is gathering supplies to give to a local school.  Any school supplies, PE equipment, jackets or cold weather clothing would be appreciated.  Sera is gathering from the neighborhood and whoever she runs into :)  See flyer below.

Home Front News:  Christian had Donuts for Dads the other week.  Katy went in my place and had a great time.  His class filled out questions about their Dads, Katy said that when Christian was asked what his Daddy liked to do for fun, he said "Work".  And, according to Christian I love him because I like him :)

At Christmas I talked to his class regarding the conditions over here and about the children I've seen.  His class organized a drive in their school to send me candy to give out to the children when we do site visits.  I now have 3 huge boxes of candy to give out.  I'm bound to get mobbed for sure :)

Local site visits with the Czech PRT

Today we visited a couple of projects in one of the local towns.  The Czech PRT team occasionally will take the project engineer out to the sites since they usually have projects in the area as well.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the project engineer speaks Czech.  After a quick roll call (we had a briefing the night before so I sort of knew where to be from the pictures in the presentation) we loaded up and headed out the gate.  I was lucky enough to get a civil affairs guy in my truck that spoke great English.  If it wasn’t for him I probably would have been pretty bored.  After we got down the road a ways we actually crossed a river and I saw some green stuff in the field for the first time.  At first I thought I was seeing things, but a double take confirmed that green plants were actually growing.  Along, the road little kids that were outside playing would run up to see the trucks and give a thumbs up sign.  I think that was the only time I saw any little girls while we were out.  Our first stop was a big Afghan National Army compound that we’re building.  Everything looked pretty good, the only issue is finding water.  They are at 150m on their second well and not having much luck.   Below is a picture of a cement mixer with all the latest accessories; a wood fired block heater, a hand crank starter, an elevated gravity fed fuel tank and a barrel radiator. 

After we left the compound we stopped to look at a site where a possible road and bridge might be built.  After jumping out of the “Dingo” we were attacked by children seeking candy and pens.  Unfortunately they had a mob mentality so it was hard to get the little ones any candy and pens.  I had to wrestle one of the pens back to give to someone that hadn’t been given anything.  The boys that had little brothers were very protective of them and would turn their stuff over to them.  I had to convince one older brother to keep some for himself. 

After that we stopped at the Ministry of Education building for the province.  The Czechs were helping with some small education projects and stopped to tell them that the supplies had arrived at Shank and to arrange a delivery time.  The civil affairs guy that was in my truck (pictured below) is working this project.  He said that they typically identify humanitarian and quick impact projects that are needed in the area and work with the local government to complete them.

Next we walked to an ANP project that we are building.  There were supposed to be some demonstrations in the area today so the Czechs figured it was better if we walked the 2 ½ blocks to the next site rather than drive.  Other than staying away from the cars on the road and the firefight that was taking place some distance away, it was a pretty nice walk.  I enjoyed seeing a little bit of the everyday life outside the FOB.  We walked passed some little stores and café/diners, gave out some candy and took a few pictures.  Pretty uneventful. 

On a different note, we are gathering supplies to take to one of the local school in about 6 weeks.  Anything from pencils, pens, paper, new/used coats, winter caps, gloves, shoes, soccer balls etc would be great.  If anyone is interested in sending anything you can send it to me and I’ll post some pictures when we deliver the items.